THEY ARE ALL GUILTY - The Government, The Shareholders, The Headhunters, The Human Resource Departments, The Remuneration Committees, The Management Institutions - and Members of Parliament. How can so many people get it so wrong ? What ?
The outrageous gluttony of massive inflated salaries and annual bonuses of Senior Executives in Corporate and Government, Civil Service positions in the United Kingdom is a Self Interest Perpetuating Conspiracy
In December 2014 there was widespread disruption for thousands of rail passengers from London because Network Rail had not completed engineering projects in North London. The Chief Executive accepted responsibility and declared that he was going to decline his £135,000 Annual Bonus - but he still kept his £675,000 salary and gold plated pension contributions - and his expenses account. What a gesture !
Another example of sheer Gluttony is at the BBC - a Public financed body. The £800,000 plus salary of the Director General is outrageous and the Government is to blame for allowing this to happen.
Payoff levels, pension schemes and expense accounts are all part of this thirst for financial gluttony.
Many of the so called Stars earn £Millions. What a National Disgrace ! They are not worth this kind of taxpayers money.
The role of Senior Bankers in the Grab all you can stakes is well documented in the United Kingdom. Salaries in their Millions and Annual Bonuses in the £Millions were and still are commonplace. Shame on the Shareholders and Remuneration Committees. It still goes on and on in spite of some recent curbs.
The Civil Service Unions will argue that in order to maintain quality staff Executives must have salaries that match the Private Corporate Sector. What rubbish !
Of course the European Union does not provide any good examples. There are many cases of Officials earning over £250,000 annually plus costly pension contributions.
Of course it is all a gluttonous circle of self interest - a case of You scratch my back and I will scratch yours.
However you will hear the exclaim - If we do not pay the market rate we will not attract good people. This argument has prevailed for decades. We might lose good people to Dubai, Singapore, Frankfurt, New York.is another argument to justify the gluttonous , outrageous salaries and Top Management packages.
All this is nonsense.
Most Chief Executives need a Team of Good people to support them - usually Marketing, Finance, Production, Sales and Human Resources - that do the leg work.
If some selfish Chief Executives decide to leave the United Kingdom then let them go , The British Government should introduce a new law that states - If you hold a British Passport - you pay UK taxes That might make them think twice about abandoning their country and British heritage.
In any case, there will be plenty of replacement candidates from the ranks who will be pleased to accept a lower salary that that vacated by the Chief Executive.
Our taxation rates need a revision away from the GREED SOCIETY.
For salaries over £150,00 the Higher Rate of Tax should be - 70%
For salaries over £250,000 the Higher Rate of Tax should be - 80%
For salaries over £350,000 the Higher Rate of Tax should be - 90%
Should the reward for work and effort be only grossly Gluttonous levels of Income ?
Should we be motivated by other ideals ?
If you already have £Millions of assets - do you need to earn salaries of £500,000 and sometimes Millions per annum ?
For an Executive earning say £50,000 per annum and paying 40% tax with no tax avoidance scheme and no hidden assets, these outrageous levels of reward for the Chief Executive can act as a disincentive, frustration and loss of good quality staff. Often, high earning CEOs lack the Personal Qualities to motivate and retain good executives.
Our Business Schools need to pay more attention to the study of Chief Executive Profiling and Behaviour Patterns and in addition to their Corporate Objective to Increase Shareholder Value, how they can Increase Employee Value - meaning, Improvement in Employee Standards of Living and Return on their Labour .This is an area that needs further development.
We are not a Just Society in the UK at the dawn of 2015.
We need bold new thinking in 2015. Whatever the new Government will be in May 2015, we DO need to review -
What kind of Society do we want for our children and grandchildren ?
Should we not share the wealth of the country in a fairer way ?
How can we allow older people and younger people to have low standards of living whilst others own £50 Millions and more in assets, live in sheer luxury with tax avoided wealth distributed across the World ?
The Political parties say they are trying to create a fairer Society but in my view they have not gone far enough. We need some Hawkes to swallow up the Fat Cat Gannets,
When will a Leader emerge who will lead us to a better fairer Britain ?
I hope that it will be in my lifetime.
